Reconstruction options

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Hi everyone

I had a bilateral mastectomy 3 years ago and had tissue expander implants inserted at the time of the op. These never seemed to give me a good shape and so I had them removed and shaped implants put in. The short of it is that these too have never been right with rotations, ripples and indents appearing and I have now had them replaced 3 times and still they are not right.

Yesterday I went to see a plastic surgeon at another hospital which my original surgeon (not a plastics specialist) had referred me to and although the guy i spoke to yesterday was brilliant I now feel pretty gutted and very confused. He told me yesterday basically that all the ops I had had so far were incorrect regarding my reconstruction and that my current implants had rotated again and were completely upside down. He then discussed a series of options for me which are:

  1. to replace the implants I have with round ones which due to gravity result in a breast shape no matter how much they rotate and to carry out a fat transfer on the thinned areas.

  2. to completely start back at the beginning with new expander implants and then replace them with round ones and subsequent fat transfers which would give a better result than the first option, but will involve a number of operations over the next two years.

  3. to remove the implants and reconstruct my breasts through fat being removed from other parts of my body which will be one op but is a long one with a long recovery period and the results of having more natural looking breasts but scars elsewhere on my body. He suggested the fat was removed from my bottom in effect giving me a buttock lift but I have never heard of this before and so don’t know what it will be like.

I have no idea which option to choose so wondered if anyone could give me some advice and guidance?

I’m 38 now (35 when diagnosed) with two small children (7 & 3)and my husband left me shortly after I was diagnosed. I haven’t had any sort of relationship since as I am too scared to ‘expose’ myself to another man again and really need to get the recon as good as possible I think before I can think about starting again with someone else.

Sorry this was a bit long winded.

Love

Debbie

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wow Debbie
You’ve really been through it.

Implants were not an option for me. I’ve just had the operation where they remove a section of your bottom like you’ve described below. I had it on 20th April and went back to work last week - 4 weeks after op. I haven’t found it that difficult to recover from, just more uncomfortable than anything else. It is a long operation and I stayed in hospital for a week and when I came out I was ready to do so and picked up really quickly.

If you’d like to know more, please PM me.
Ruby xx

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Hi Debbie

You may find the BCC booklet on breast reconstruction useful to read. It contains details of the range of reconstruction options available as well as information on the procedure, suitability and recovery period after surgery. If you would like to order a copy or read it on line just follow this link:-

breastcancercare.org.uk/upload/pdf/bcc7_breast_reconstruction_booklet_LARGE_PRINT_v2.pdf

I hope this helps.

Best wishes, Sam (BCC Facilitator)